"Obviously, I got away with more mistakes probably a few years back, but I feel like I'm making better pitches in bigger situations now," Marquis said. "I've learned to slow the game down more than anything. Years past, when you're younger and you maybe have a little extra on your fastball, you tend to speed things up -- harder, harder, harder. I try to stay away from the big inning and learn to focus on that pitch at that particular moment instead of the big picture."

Johnson apparently wasn't showing the same stuff he flashed during spring training. His velocity hovered between 91-92 mph with the fastball, and his slider was a little off. "He threw some nasty sliders, but there were others that major-league hitters would hit for home runs," a scout told Knobler. "In a big-league game, he would have gotten hit hard," the scout concluded. 

Johnson tossed three innings, striking out five during the start. He gave up three hits and one run. 

Casilla received his first start in over a week, and made two impressive plays in the field. "Alexi put on a show at second base. What a game he had. My gosh. He was impressive," Showalter said. Yamaico Navarro has been starting at second recently, but Casilla's strong play could earn him more time. 

Tejada has struggled both offensively and defensively in 2013. He's batting .213 through 42 games and has made seven errors. He made all of 12 errors in 112 games last season.

If Tejada was demoted, then Omar Quintanilla would likely become the team's starting shortstop.

Suzuki is batting .303 (10 for 33) with one double, two RBI, two runs and two walks in his last 10 games (nine starts).

Ellsbury is hitting just .241/.303/.335 in 191 at-bats in the final year of his contract. Neither Shane Victorino nor manager John Farrell believes free agency has any impact on Ellsbury's stat line, and Farrell is not going to drop Ellsbury from the leadoff spot. 

Victorino indicated he believes Ellbury will turn things around "He’s really not doing that bad. To be where he’s at right now, he hasn’t put himself in a hole," the outfielder said. 

Mike Napoli admitted there is some extra pressure on players during their walk seasons. "It was more all the outside people. Your family, your friends, they’re like, ‘Hey, you’ve got to have a big year this year.'"

Ellsbury will have a chance to turn things around against White Sox starter Jose Quintana Tuesday. 

LaRoche is batting .382 (21 for 55) with two doubles, four home runs, nine walks, nine runs and 12 RBI during his hitting streak.

Miller exceeded 100 pitches for the third time in four May starts and for the fifth time this season. 

"Throwing 20 pitches every single inning is not what I'm here to do," Miller said, per MLB.com. "Facing a good hitting offense on a big league club, it's not going to be easy to just throw it and have then swing at it every single time. Something I have to realize is to get the ball around the zone and hopefully things happen better."

Outside of the complete-game shutout he threw May 10, Miller is averaging more than 17 pitches per inning in his eight other starts.

"There are some nights where they're picking it up a little bit better and fouling it off," manager Mike Matheny said. "They're still not squaring up a lot of them. I think taking some shots down in the bottom of the zone more often may be part of the way to help him because the foul balls are typically the ones at the top."

Jay has been thriving since being moved out of the leadoff spot in the lineup. He has hit .215 in 19 games as the leadoff hitter, but he's hitting .250 or better batting second, fifth, sixth, seventh and ninth. He's done exceptionally well hitting sixth (.385) or seventh (.407).

"Those numbers for his lack of production in the past were kind of false numbers," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny said, per the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. "He takes good at-bats. You don’t see him do much different with guys in scoring position. I know the year before last, he was known as a guy who wasn’t driving in runs. I think he’s proved to himself that he’s able to do that when the situation presents itself."